For the first time ever at Marquette, the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" will be on display in the John P. Raynor, S.J. Library beginning Wednesday.

An opening ceremony will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m. in the Prucha Archives Reading Room, located on the third floor of the Raynor Library. The event will feature a poetry reading by local poet James Hazard.

Hazard will read selections from Kerouac's own works of poetry. In addition, saxophonist Steve Nelson-Raney will play music from the 1950s and 60s, according to Susan Hopwood, Outreach Librarian in the Department of Libraries-Research and Outreach Services.

Students and faculty as well as local Milwaukee residents are welcome to attend, she said.

The display is part of a four-year tour that will eventually make 13 stops, said Matt Blessing, Head of Special Collections & University Archives. Other sites scheduled to host the exhibit include the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and the Denver and San Francisco Public Libraries. Marquette is the third stop on the tour.

Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, is the manuscript's owner. He bought it in an auction and arranged for its restoration and tour, Hopwood said.

The script is on a scroll made of separate sheets of teletype paper which Kerouac taped together. The scroll is 120 feet in length and contains Kerouac's fingerprints and authentic markings such as coffee stains and dog's teeth impressions, she said.

Blessing said 40 feet of the manuscript would be displayed at a time. Jim Canary, a curator at the Lilly Library at Indiana University, will install the scroll and visit every five weeks to unveil a new portion of the script.

Kerouac typed "On the Road" in 1951, Hopwood said. It was published in 1957.

The manuscript is important for its impact on the generation that followed its publication and because it is a great artifact, Blessing said.

"Jack Kerouac is considered one of the best of the beat generation writers," he said. "Beat writers published material in the 1950s that pushed societal norms at a time when many writers were cautious due to restrictions of the McCarthy era."

He said the first draft of "On the Road" contains no paragraphs and was typed in only 20 days.

To prepare for the display, the English department has added a new class on beat writers to its curriculum. Students enrolled in the class will be among the attendees at tomorrow's opening event, Hopwood said.

Hopwood said the Office of the President, Norman Ott Writing Center, Raynor Library and the Marquette English department sponsored the exhibit. It will remain at Marquette until Nov. 30.